Weight lifters and other persons engaged in athletic training commonly mix granulated or powdered protein supplements and water within a common commercially sold water bottle. In order to perform such supplement mixing, the athlete is typically required to transfer the protein supplement material from a storage canister into the water bottle. Such materials transfer is often difficult to accomplish due to factors such as the typically narrow bore of the mouths of commonly sold water bottles, and a common tendency of protein supplement mixes to clump and coagulate.
A commonly known means for assisting in transferring such granulated protein mix into a water bottle utilizes a common funnel whose throat or output end is inserted into the upwardly opening mouth of the water bottle. However, utilization of such funnel means typically narrows the bore through which the granulated protein supplement mix must pass, such narrowing aggravating the mix's coagulation or clumping tendency and further hampering or interrupting the desired downward flow of the protein supplement mix. In order to overcome such flow disrupting coagulation and clumping of the protein mix within such common funnel, athletes are known to utilize an agitator such as a stir stick to break up protein mix coagulations and clumps within the funnel's bell, and to urge the protein mix to flow downwardly through the funnel's throat and into the water bottle. However, such method undesirably requires the athlete to locate and to provide a clean stirring utensil, which often is not readily found within gyms and workout rooms. Upon finding a suitable stirring utensil, use of such common funnel transfer means further undesirably requires the athlete to unergonomically simultaneously handle and manipulate three articles, they being the funnel, the mixing bottle, and the stirring utensil.
The instant inventive apparatus for receiving and dispensing granulated materials solves or ameliorates the problems and disadvantages of commonly used mixing bottle, funnel and stirring utensil combinations discussed above by providing a specially adapted and configured funnel which incorporates a rotatable coupling member, such member being adapted to include and extend an agitator into the bell of a funnel, and such member being adapted to both facilitate releasable attachment of the funnel to a mixing bottle, and facilitate rotation of the bottle, the coupling member and the agitator with respect to the funnel.